Tortoises, dolphins and monkeys!

Prison Island was way cooler than I could ever have imagined. I thought there were a few tortoises and we might get a quick glimpse of them in the distance, but there were tons of them and they were HUGE! AND WE COULD PET THEM AND FEED THEM!!!! I didn't want to leave! They kept going after my green shorts and green flip-flops! I definitely wanted to take one home!

I think I left off saying I was hoping for some sun on the east coast beaches. Well, day 1 in Jambiani didn't deliver - it poured rain and we were confined to our beach-front bungalow reading books all day. But days 2, 3, and 4 more than made up for the rain, and I now have sun-burned thighs to prove it! I've never experienced this kind of heat before; being so close to the equator makes it hot hot hot! Yesterday we decided to take a dalla-dalla, which is usually a mini-van crammed full of locals, but in this case it was a converted truck with benches in the back. The 1 hour trip turned into a 2.5 hour one! Barb left this morning, and on my first day by myself I had decided to go to a place called Kizimkazi to hopefully see dolphins. Once again I was pleasantly surprised - not only did I see some, but I got to swim with them!!! I almost touched one but then it dove beneath me, and I watched two dolphins swim right under me!!! So cool, had I known I would have brought my underwater camera! Then we stopped at a rain forest that is home to an endagered species of monkeys called red colubus, and they only live in Zanzibar. I thought we would be lucky to see some swinging through the trees, but I literally could have pet them they were that close. Check out my current facebook picture; they're cute! Well, that's all for now.

Zanzibar

Well, the R&R part of my vacation has finally arrived, and I'm sure it will fly by and I'll be home in no time! From Arusha Barb and I went to the Usambara Mountains for 2 days and stayed in a small village called Lushoto. One day we went on a guided hike to a nice lookout point and also to a pretty waterfall for some swimming. The water was very cold and I was the only one brave enough to swim over to the fall. We saw quite a few chameleons along the way, and they were fun to play with. The second day we took a tour to a tea factory, passing tea plantations along the way. The whole process of making tea was pretty interesting, and we got to drink tea and take some home with us. I'm hoping I'll have room in my bag!

On Friday morning we caught the 6 o'clock bus to Dar, and would have arrived by noon if we hadn't broken down. It was bound to happen as all of my other bus rides have been fairly smooth. The bus had 8 wheels at the back, 4 on each side, and after an hour of waiting on the side of the road, we continued on with only 6 wheels! We caught the 2:30 ferry over to Zanzibar, and made it in time to have supper in a beach-side restaurant watching the sunset. There isn't actually much to do in Stonetown itself, so we wandered around and hit all the tourist shops on the first day, went to a small museum, then had supper in the Forodhani Gardens. This is the local fish market where they cook up the day's catch. I don't care much for seafood, but I

figured I should at least try some....and it turns out I like quite a bit! I had lobster, shrimp, red snapper, blue marlin, swordfish, shark, tuna, barracuda, octopus, squid, and crab! I think I've sampled everything they sell (see picture). Yesterday we took a spice tour to see how all the different kinds of spices grow. It was very interesting. We also saw some Persian bath ruins, a slave cave where slaves were kept, and then spent an hour at a beach. Today we are off to Prison Island, just a 1/2 hour boat ride from Stonetown, and I'm excited because there are giant tortoises there! Tomorrow we're off to the east coast for some nice quiet beaches, and hopefully some sun!

Kilimanjaro, "The Roof of Africa"

Entrance to Kilimanjaro National Park, and the start of the Machame Trail.


Our first camp site. We went up 1200 m that day.


Day 2: having a break along the trail.


Day 3: Barb and I with the peak in the background.


Sunset as seen from camp.


Day 5: getting closer!


The summit! Truly amazing!


A view inside the crater.


Well, I did it! It still seems a bit surreal, but I have now been to the top of the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, and the tallest point in all of Africa!
It all started on Sunday, August 5th. We (myself and Barb, the Canadian girl I'm travelling with) were supposed to be picked up at our hotel somewhere between 8 and 9 (remember, no hurry in Africa), so when 9:30 rolled around I started worrying. We called the tour office and apparently our guide was at the hotel, he just hadn't bothered to try to find us in the lobby! So we got a late start, but it didn't seem to matter because once we got to Machame gate, there were tons of people milling around, waiting for their guides to get climbing permits. We were the very last people to start up the trail at around 2:30 in the afternoon, and I was a bit worried because our itinerary said we had a 7-8 hour hike in front of us, but it turned out to be only 4 hours to our first camp. It was a nice hike up a fairly wide trail through the rainforest-absolutely gorgeous. We arrived to find our tent set up and were quickly served a hot supper right in the tent! So day 1 we went from 1800m to 3000m, and we passed quite a few people on the way up, which made me feel a bit better about being out of shape!
Day 2 was another 4 hours of hiking, but this time is was quite a bit more challenging, due to both the steepness and rockiness of the trail. We arrived at Shira Plateau camp just after noon, and had the whole afternoon to relax in our tent. This camp was at 3,600m.
Day 3 - About 6 hours hiking total. We rose all the way to 4,600 m before descending to Barranco camp, which was in a mist valley.
Day 4 - began by climbing straight up a cliff, which was made more interesting by the fact that our guide kept taking shortcuts so we were passing people left and right! Today was a short hike; only 2 hours, because we did the 7 day climb to allow more time to adjust to altitude. From this camp, Karanga Camp, we were supposed to go to Barafu Camp on day 5, (2 hours away) and then rest all day and start climbing to the summit at midnight. But, our guide had other ideas. He figured we were strong and could handle the altitude, and we agreed since neither of us really had any problems. So...
Day 5 began early; we set out from Karanga camp at 7:30 and climbed steadily upwards to Barafu camp, where we took a 15 minute break, and then started our ascent to the summit! The upside to this was that it wasn't freezing cold and pitch black; the downside, we ended up climbing straight up for nearly 7 hours! We reached Stella point (5,780m) around 2 pm on day 5, and I thought I might never make it at times because we couldn't see the top while we were climbing. My legs felt like lead and jello at the same time, and for every step we took in the loose scree, I slid half a step back. But making it to Stella Point gave me more energy, and we walked around the ridge through snow to Uhuru Peak! 5,895m! I was exhausted and exhilarated at the same time! It was absolutely stunning to be up there, and we were the only people up there! Not a cloud above us (because they were all below us) and I could have been in a t-shirt it was that warm! We stayed about half an hour just enjoying the views of the crater and enormous glaciers (hard to believe they are supposed to melt by 2020!) before beginning our descent. And while it took us nearly 5 hours to get up, it only took 35 minutes to get down! We basically slid and jumped, using our poles for balance, and I had about a cup of dirt in each shoe by the time we got back to Barafu Camp! We had a short break there, and then descended all the way down to 3,800m where we had supper and went straight to sleep.
Day 6- 3 hours down in the pouring rain, sore feet, but exstatic that I had made it! We had lunch at the bottom and a bottle of sparkling wine! So we paid for 7 days and did it in 6 - not bad! Back to Arusha, where we have been hanging out and buying souvenirs, the coolest one being a Kilimanjaro water bottle (to go with my backpack).
This morning we went to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Rwandan Genocide. It was very interesting. Tomorrow I'm off to the Usambara Mountains, which are between Kili and the Indian Ocean. About 3 days there with Barb, then Zanzibar! I'm running out of internet time, so until next time...keep fit and have fun!

Safari

An attempt at an artsy pic in b&w. Love, love, love giraffes!!



We got super close to these hippos. They were making out!


A buffalo skull in Ngorongoro Crater.


First lion we saw, she has some sort of tracking collar on.


Love this sign! We camped in the middle of the Serengeti with no fence. Good thing we weren't "attact"!


This elephant was on the edge of one of our campsites!!! I actually got a bit closer than this picture shows. So cool!!!


A buffalo from really close-up. He was right outside my jeep window!


A perfect pose.


I like this one with the baby.


The people I went on safari with: Tom, Barb, Kate and Anne-Marie








Well, I just finished 5 days of safari yesterday, and it was really fun. From Arusha we first went to Lake Manyara, which has pretty much everything: elephants, giraffes, zebra, hippos, etc. It was so cool, especially because it was our first day so we were very camera happy and excited about seeing everything. The next 2 days were spent in the Serengeti, where we saw lions, a cheetah, and a leopard, so we were pretty lucky. Day 4 was spent in the Ngorongoro Crater, where we could have seen rhinos from a distance if any of us had any binoculars! Yesterday we were in Tarangire park, where we saw the largest herd of elephants so far, maybe fifty of them in a dry river bed. That was really cool. Also, there was an elephant on the edge of one of our campsites and I got really close to take a picture! I can't really do justice to everything I have seen without posting pictures, but that seems to be very difficult here so I will try at another internet cafe. Today has just been a lazy day in Arusha, then tomorrow morning at 8 (or 9, no hurry in Africa) I start climbing Kili! I will tell you all about it next week after I have been to the roof of Africa!